“It has become a national conversation,” Stephen Bardy, executive director of the Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando, the former SPCA of Central Florida, told The Ledger. “We have to get people to think about what they really want in a dog, what really fits with their lives — instead of having them just walk in and say, ‘I want a golden retriever puppy.’”

The change also addresses the overaggressive stigma often attached to pit bulls.

Karen Hirsch, public relations director with Lifeline, told WSB-TV that many of the dogs at the shelters that look like pit bulls aren’t really pit bulls, and are unfairly labeled according to head or chest size measurements.